Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
October 7, 1999, Thursday, Final Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 14A
LENGTH: 589 words
HEADLINE:
Divided House taking up managed health care
BYLINE: Rebecca Carr, Cox Washington Bureau
SOURCE: JOURNAL
DATELINE:
Washington
BODY:
The House of Representatives
approved a package of tax breaks Wednesday designed to help the nation's 44
million uninsured afford health care.
The Republican measure, which passed 227-205, mostly along party lines,
was strongly opposed by Democrats, who said it would require dipping into Social
Security surplus funds to pay for it.
Democrats charged the legislation
merely provided political protection for Republicans as the House begins to vote
on measures today that would bring major changes to the way managed care is
administered. Republican leaders worked behind the scenes to kill a bipartisan
measure, written by Georgia Republican Rep. Charlie Norwood and Michigan
Democrat John Dingell, that would allow patients to sue their health insurance
companies in state court.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and
other top Republicans oppose that bill, saying it would open the courts to
frivolous and costly litigation.
They favor a bill by Republicans Tom
Coburn of Oklahoma and John Shadegg of Arizona that would allow patients to sue
their health insurers in a far more limited way: only in federal court, where
damage awards are typically smaller, and only after patients have exhausted all
administrative appeals.
"By then they could be dead," countered Norwood.
He noted his bill would allow patients to sue at any point in a dispute with
their health insurer.
Republican leaders have approved rules for today's
debate that would bring three competing bills to the floor before the
Norwood-Dingell measure.
And if any of those bills wins a majority, the
Norwood-Dingell measure would not be voted on at all. Norwood and Dingell have
the support of 23 House Republicans, President Clinton and most of the House
Democrats.
But Republican leaders were trying to chip away at that
support. Coburn said at least half of those 23 Republicans would switch their
votes and support his bill and that some conservative Democrats were considering
it.
"It's getting hot around here," said Norwood, a dentist from
Augusta. He has pushed his party's leaders to confront overhauling managed care
since he arrived in Congress four years ago.
The bill that passed
Wednesday would give the self-insured a 100 percent tax deduction for health
care insurance premiums. It also would allow medical savings accounts, which are
tax-exempt accounts that can be used for medical purposes.
The
legislation would give small businesses the option to buy health insurance under
federal rather than state regulations --- exempting them from state mandates
that bigger self-insured companies now avoid.
The Republican members of
the Georgia delegation supported the measure --- except for Norwood, who said it
was designed to undermine his own proposal. Georgia Democrats opposed the bill;
Rep. Cynthia McKinney did not vote.
Among the Georgia congressional
delegation, both Republican Bob Barr and Democrat John Lewis said they would
support the Norwood-Dingell bill.
Reps. Mac Collins and John Linder said
they could not support it.
Linder said he would likely support the
Shadegg-Coburn bill in large part because he is concerned about trial lawyers
flooding the courts with lawsuits. "This is a new killing field for trial
lawyers," Linder said.
Asked about voting against such a high-profile
measure sponsored by a fellow Georgia Republican, Linder said he learned a long
time ago from state House Speaker Tom Murphy that politics is not personal.
"You just need to smile and go on," Linder said.
LOAD-DATE: October 8, 1999 
